NEW BEDFORD — Steve Viveiros, a 36-year-old city native, served in the Navy from 2003 to 2007, including a six-month tour in Iraq. Coming back into civilian life, he didn’t know what was next. He went through a divorce, battled with alcohol, cocaine and opiates and became homeless.

After feeling lost the last 10 years, “I’m finally starting to find myself again,” he said, while at the Veterans Transition House in New Bedford, where he’s lived since May.

“I think it’s saving my life,” he said. Since the beginning of his stay, he started working at the Harbor Hotel downtown as a front desk agent and night auditor; he’s been sober and got his service connection disability. He’s working on getting his driver’s license back and plans to buy a car so he can see his kids more and visit family.

The hotel is his “home away from home,” Viveiros said. He calls himself a “people person,” although before, because of his anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), he said he wouldn’t want to deal with people. Through therapies and groups, he feels he’s getting better.

Similar to the guys that live there, the house itself is in a transition of its own. It’s temporarily located at St. John’s Rectory on County Street in the South End while the former facility at 20 Willis St. near Clasky Common Park, where the program started, is slated to be demolished to make way for new permanent supportive housing units with veterans preference. The nonprofit began in 1990 in the now-former Francis P. Memorial Hospital at 20 Willis St. with a group of veterans concerned for the well-being of other veterans.

Life in the house

A handful of the residents sat in the community room on a recent Wednesday afternoon with NECN on the TV. John Fortes of Burns and Fortes Consulting walked in, shook hands with the residents and wished them a “Happy New Year,” preparing to start a 1 p.m. group session on mental health disorders — how to manage them and how they might affect recovery from drugs and alcohol.

After a peer talked about his anger issues, Viveiros said in the military, they’re trained to fight and kill, which is why they need programs before leaving the service so they can learn how to be civil again.

“That’s why a lot of us are here,” Viveiros said.

Fortes, in recovery himself going on 13 years, read a definition of PTSD. The pain is usually dealt with through substance abuse, he said, but asked residents how they’re managing while in recovery.

“I try to stay busy,” Viveiros said. He focuses on work, which keeps him away from thoughts about his trauma. Sometimes he goes for a walk or reads a book, he said.

“We need to learn how to take the reins to treat our mental health disorders,” Fortes said. Otherwise, the vets are at a greater risk of relapsing, he said.

On any given day, residents get knocks on their doors at 7 a.m. to wake up, report to a muster at 8:15 (to go over the day’s schedule) and to have breakfast. Then the guys have their own meeting run by the resident president and there are two group sessions run by a case manager or outside partner. There’s some free time, dinner and then Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, with transportation provided. They meet with case managers two to three times a week. They pay $200 a month for their stay and services.

Typically, after four to six weeks, residents can stay out for a night or two and fill out a pass containing information of where they’re staying and how they can be contacted. Family or friends can visit and generally the curfew is 10 p.m.

There’s a fund dedicated to the residents’ recreational programming and they can choose what they want to do with it. They’ve gone on fishing trips, bowling and, on occasion, have used funds to help other veterans.

Sixth District Congressman Seth Moulton, who has focused on veterans during his first two terms in Congress, said that when he returned home after the last of four tours in Iraq at age 29, he had a difficult transition, too.

“I think people in the community need to just recognize that it is a transition to come from military to the civilian workforce, and you should give veterans a chance."

Moulton, now 40, last year organized a program encouraging other vets to run for Congress, and talked about the difference between military and civilian life.

“It’s easy to feel like you’ve lost your sense of purpose and I experienced that myself,” he said, adding he missed the sense of service he had in the Marines.

“It’s hard going from a place where you have a clear, often life-or-death mission ... back to everyday life at home,” he said.

Veterans are “incredibly talented,” said Moulton, who represents the North Shore and Merrimack Valley. “They’ve learned leadership in the toughest environment on earth.”

“If there’s anyone in America who deserves a second chance, it’s veterans, because they gave all of us a chance for freedom," he said.

Losing a brother

Transition House residents lost a fellow veteran toward the end of last September after a fatal overdose. He had been living in the house since May.

“He seemed to be fine. There were no outward signs,” said Susan Fonteneau Nicolan, the program director. She described him as a “bubbly individual.”

Someone knocked on the bathroom door and no one answered, she said. That’s when a resident got staff and they found him in the bathroom.

According to Gregg Miliote, spokesman for Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III, the 37-year-old man overdosed on cocaine. A needle, crack pipe, pusher rod and lighter were found on the bathroom counter, he said.

People in recovery have to keep their guard up and can’t take a day off from staying clean and sober, she said. The VTH tries to stay on top of things, she said, but noted that people in the community can visit the house and the guys can leave, so they’re not in a bubble.

Viveiros said he’s gotten a couple of guys jobs working as valets at the hotel, including his fellow resident that died. Viveiros met him at the VA Hospital and then he showed up at the VTH, he said.

“He was a good person,” he said. He left a son behind.

Before he died, he took Viveiros to Walmart to get a gift for his niece’s baptism. He said he wanted to watch his son play football the next day, Viveiros said.

“He didn’t make it,” he said.

“We lost a brother. We lost a family member here,” he said.

Rev. David Lima, executive minister at the Inter-Church Council of Greater New Bedford, went to the house with a chaplain to conduct a group session after the overdose.

“They felt pretty hopeless,” he said.

It was also an eye opener, Viveiros said. “It’s an everyday battle,” he said, referring to staying sober.

On Dec. 13, 2018, a resident was transported to a local hospital because of an overdose. Two doses of Narcan were administered at the house and two doses were administered at the hospital, Fonteneau Nicolan said. The resident had been there since July.

Since moving into the rectory in July, the house has had Narcan. Both staff and residents got Narcan training in October and staff got CPR training in November.

“We try to make sure that, you know, we’re doing everything we can,” she said.

Services

The majority of the veterans come from detox and some are accepted from the streets as long as they meet the criteria and have the right paperwork, said Fonteneau Nicolan. When vets come in, they’re referred to the Supportive Services to Veteran Families program to assist in finding permanent housing or they can apply for a Section 8 Veterans Housing Voucher Program. Although there’s a lack of affordable housing.

If the vet is homeless, it’s usually due to an underlying issue. The majority of guys that come in are dual diagnosed, Fonteneau Nicolan said, meaning they have a substance abuse issue and a mental health issue. The big three are anxiety, depression and PTSD, she said.

A lot of them don’t know what services are available to them or what benefits they’re entitled to, Fonteneau Nicolan said. The average age of residents in the house is 54 to 59.

The VTH can refer the residents to services they might not be able to offer them. One less thing they have to worry about is a roof over their head and what they’re eating for dinner that night, said Jim Reid, the executive director, but that comes with responsibility of attending meetings and doing house chores.

Reid said some people in the larger veteran community feel that all the VTH does is help out and “babysit alcoholics and addicts.”

“Who’s going to help them?” Reid asked. The organization started with a Vietnam veteran wanting to help another veteran who wasn’t doing as well, he said.

The nonprofit also runs a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs grant and per diem low demand 24-hour staffed program on Pleasant Street, which is now in its second year. In this program, veterans can still be actively using alcohol or drugs, just not on the property, whereas historically, someone could be discharged if found to be using, Reid said.

“We understand the disease and we understand that there may be a relapse here and there,” he said. The main concern is safety and security of those in the house, which has 12 beds.

“I think anyone with a substance abuse problem deserves our help, but especially people who have put their lives on the line for our country," Moulton said.

There was a female program in 2008, but it was hard to keep it full, Reid said, because children weren’t allowed and there were a lack of referrals. It lost funding.

Lima, along with representatives from PAACA (Positive Action Against Chemical Addiction), Seven Hills Behavioral Health and the New Bedford Police Department, plans to supplement programs at the VTH by holding group sessions with residents. Lima said they hope to empower residents to let them know what they’d like to get from the meetings.

Lima called the Veterans Transition House “one of those hidden gems in this community for our veterans” and said it “serves a vital purpose.”

They’re not the only ones thinking of the VTH. Both residents and staff said they get donations of food and gifts, especially over the holidays. The YMCA offers passes so the vets can go to the gym for free.

Statistics say that without places like the VTH, there would be a lot more homeless people and deaths, Lima said, and it’s incumbent upon people like him and the community representatives to work together to strengthen the house.

Faces of the house

Resident Tyrone Williams, 54, an immigrant from the Bahamas, tries to give back by driving fellow veterans to their appointments in one of the house vans. He’s been at the house for over six months after losing his apartment at Welby Park in New Bedford, where he had lived for 10 years.

For the most part, he was a truck driver prior to living in the house, he said. For the last 18 years or so, he’s had a “solitary existence,” he noted. The house has given him the opportunity to socialize again.

Thinking about the program, the term “band of brothers” comes to mind, Williams said. He’s looking into getting another job or going back to school and seeking a new apartment. His late sister, a professor, always wanted him to go to school for programming.

“This is a huge opportunity for anybody…down on their luck and willing to refocus and reassess,” said Williams, a veteran of the Air Force and Army guard for over 10 years altogether.

When his sister, his only family in the U.S., died three to four years ago at 53 due to a heart attack, Williams said he fell into a depression and isolated himself in his apartment for a few years, living off of his savings and retirement fund. When that ran out, he became homeless. He was at the Sister Rose House for about a week and then got into the Transition House.

“It’s like family,” he said.

Damon Constantinople, 47, was born and raised in Connecticut and has been homeless for about the last 14 years.

He has PTSD from his childhood and said he believes that is the cause of his alcoholism and what caused him to become homeless. This is his second stay at the VTH.

He’s working on his PTSD, psychological issues and strengthening his sobriety. With VA services nearby, it’s convenient for him to see a therapist.

The big thing for him is being safe, he said, and not out on the street, in a park or under a bridge.

Constantinople admits he’s spent some time in jail. Before getting his pension from the VA, he’d rob unlocked cars for change to buy alcohol and got caught several times.

He has fibrosis of the liver and gastrointestinal reflux disease from drinking. He’s been sober for over five months.

“I have nothing to complain about,” he said. “I have nothing but gratitude for this place.”

He took a bus back home to see his family over the holidays. He said he doesn’t know of any places like the VTH in Connecticut. He was in the Air Force from 1990-94 as an aircraft mechanic. Several of his family members have served in the military.

He said he’d like to go back to work some day and go back to school for a nursing degree.

Constantinople said he naturally isolates himself, but having roommates and being with other vets helps a lot. He was chosen to be the resident president, which helps to get him out of his shell. In that role he reports residents’ concerns or issues to staff.

The future of the program

In its first capital campaign, the VTH raised $1 million of $1.3 million for an outreach center and the main transitional house.

Business Manager and CFO Jason Stripinis said Bank 5 President and CEO William "Bill" Eccles, Jr., chairman of the capital campaign committee, has been “unbelievably supportive” and close to half of the collected money has come from area banks.

For now, the St. John's rectory can accommodate over 30 veterans for transitional housing. Residents can stay for up to two years, although a typical stay is about six months. Some are readmitted depending on the circumstances.

The rectory doesn’t have an elevator or an industrial kitchen like the former house.

The building at 20 Willis St. is set to be torn down for 30 units of permanent supportive housing thanks to about $8.6 million greenlighted by Gov. Charlie Baker and the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).

That project has been held up as the VTH waited on required sign-off from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which was closed due to the lapse in congressional appropriations from the government shutdown.

The affordable permanent housing project will be broken up into two buildings. One will have 23 studio apartments and the other will have seven units, including studios and one and two bedrooms. The larger building will contain two offices, a cafeteria and community space.

The project will likely take two years to complete.

The VTH already has two apartment buildings for permanent supportive housing on County Street and South Sixth Street that total 11 units. Some veterans get rental subsidies and some pay the market rate.

Stripinis calls that type of housing “a work in progress” because those properties are actively managed and the people who live there are checked on periodically.

With the additional units, the VTH hopes to actively make contact with people at least once a month and be available to them for some case management. The tenants will be able to eat at the cafeteria at least once a day and get transportation to the VA for appointments, he said.

The VTH is collaborating with WHALE (Waterfront Historic Area LeaguE) to make 1060 Pleasant St. the new home of the transition house, an $800,000 project with about 20 beds. They’re also working on a project at 1311 Purchase St., a $300,000 renovation for a state-of-the-art outreach center to serve those that live in the VTH properties and others in the community. Those two projects are set to be finished by the end of September.

The outreach center will also serve as the main office building, including at least three clinical care offices and a place to access services, plus a computer lab.

The VTH also has a seven-bed service intensive transitional housing location at 98 Arnold Street.

Viveiros said even when he leaves to visit his three sons, he wants to come back to be around the other veterans.

“This place really works if you want it to, you know. The tools are here. It feels like family,” he said.

Follow Aimee Chiavaroli on Twitter @AimeeC_SCT

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